Looking for the perfect body
If you love your body, or anyone else’s, this might be the event that will appeal to you most. It’s Olympia Weekend at The Orleans, Sept. 25 -28. Mr. Olympia is a bodybuilding competition held annually by the International Federation of BodyBuilders and winning this event is considered to be the highest accolade in the professional bodybuilding field.
Fitness enthusiasts from around the world will take part in Mr. Olympia, Ms. Olympia, and Fitness and Figure Olympia Championships. The parallel contest, Ms. Olympia, is specifically for female bodybuilders. In addition, Fitness Olympia and Figure Olympia are held for fitness and figure competitors, respectively. This year, Las Vegan Jay Cutler is competing to defend his Mr. Olympia title for the third consecutive year.
Ticket prices range from $54.50 to $212.50 and can be purchased at www.orleansarena.com
For all you film buffs, put this on your calendar. The CineVegas Film Festival and the Springs Preserve will host a special screening of the comedy, "Diminished Capacity," on Saturday, Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m. at the Springs Preserve’s outdoor amphitheater.
Tickets are $10 each, and a Dinner and a Movie package is available for $25 per person. This includes reserved seating and a pre-movie dinner at the Springs Preserve Café by Wolfgang Puck at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale and can be purchased at the Springs Preserve box office or by visiting www.cinevegas.com.
The bittersweet comedy poses the question: How much is a good memory worth? That's the question that faces newspaper editor Cooper (Matthew Broderick) after a debilitating concussion takes him from the political pages to comic strip detail. Looking for answers, he travels home to Missouri where his now senile Uncle Rollie (Alan Alda) is on the verge of losing his home.
When a valuable baseball card is thrown into the mix, these two men, along with a motley group of hometown friends including Cooper's high school sweetheart, Charlotte (Virginia Madsen), head to a memorabilia expo to make the deal of a century, diving headfirst into a snakepit of slick salesmen, crooked dealers and rabid fans revealing that there are some things in life that you can't put a price on.
If you’re thinking of bringing your own food and beverages, fuggedaboutit. That’s a no-no, but you can get them at a bar set up at the screening. Low chairs are permitted and you’re encouraged to bring your own blankets to sit on at the screening. Chairs will be available for rental. Sounds like a fun night out for the whole family.
Talk about taking the fun out of everything. The Excalibur has become the first Strip resort to fully automate its poker room, installing 12 electronic tables. Progress can be great, but it’s always at the expense of humans. In this case, some 40 dealer positions were eliminated but the room still employs a staff of 20 cashiers and poker hosts who have been trained on the system.
The MGM Mirage-owned resort is offering free-roll tournaments every morning and low-limit cash games to build interest in the refurbished poker room. Excalibur officials said revenues from poker had been falling and interest in the game was waning. As well, installing the electronic tables was a way to make live poker less intimidating to the resort's middle-market customer base.
Here’s how it works. Players sign in using an MGM Mirage Players Club Card, which makes the games cashless. The tables, which can be set for low-limit Texas hold 'em, Omaha and seven-card stud, keep track of statistics and other game data. The tables are electronic but poker players compete against other poker players in a live game. The tables have a feel that combines video poker with Internet poker in a poker-room setting.
The tables have individual touch screens for each player and a 40-inch flat screen in the middle to display community cards, players' table stakes and the pot. The individual screens show players their hole cards. Like live poker, the casino does not know the hole cards nor does the player have to show them after folding. The electronic machines keep a record of the action that could be used to settle disputes about collusion or other allegations.
Wannabe a scary dude (or dudess?) Fright Dome, one of the top haunted attractions in the country is looking for cast members. On Wednesdayy, September 24, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., auditions will be held at the Fright Dome ticket tent adjacent to The Advernturedome in the west parking lot at Circus Circus. This open casting call includes a presentation by primary cast members and a brief informative discussion about Fright Dome.
I’ll wrap this column up with a letter from Roy McCann of Temecula, Calif, who writes: “Thanks for the info on the Elvis museum, Lenny. I visited the museum a few times and am not surprised it closed down ... I stayed in the Monte Carlo last month for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it. Lance Burton show was terrific. We were also pleasantly surprised by how easy it was, and how affordable, to rent a Cabana ... our attendant was super friendly and attentive. Top marks ... we would go back.
“Also kudos to Las Vegas Tours for the Grand Canyon Experience featuring plane ride, helicopter descent, and riverboat ride along the Colorado River. For $375, it was worth every cent. Only complaint would be the pricey tag of $34 that I paid to take half a dozen steps onto the glass bottom of the Grand Canyon Skywalk, got my photo taken for $28, thought twice about going any further, and then cowardly inched my way back onto solid ground. This Chicken felt like he'd had his feathers well and truly plucked. Still, I would recommend the entire tour to all your readers. Photographs, videos and displays are abysmally inadequate in capturing the grandeur of this majestic natural wonder. Can't wait to get back to my favorite city in the world.
“Keep the news and updates coming. If you are ever passing this way, give me a call and the missus and I would be honored to take you and yours to sample one of our grand Temecula Wineries.” I may just take you up on that offer, Roy.
Good luck and I'll see you on the Strip. And don't forget to check out eNeon each Thursday by subscribing (free of charge) to the Review-Journal's weekly newsletter. If you have a question or a Las Vegas experience you would like to share with my readers, please e-mail me at lennylv@netzero.net. Please include your full name and the city or town where you live.
